A. Field of the Disclosure
The field of the disclosure is steering mechanisms, vehicles comprising steering mechanisms, and methods of using both of the foregoing.
B. State of the Art
Wheeled vehicles are inherently unstable during turns. A moving vehicle entering a turn, as a consequence of its linear momentum, will be pushed toward the outside of the turn by what is often referred to as the centrifugal force, actually a fictitious force, which can result in overturning of the vehicle, skidding, and loss of control by the operator. The centrifugal force increases as the vehicle's speed increases and as the angle of the turn increases; consequently, so does the tendency to cause an adverse result.
A variety of mechanisms are used to counter centrifugal force during a turn. Some vehicles are capable of leaning into a turn, the most common examples being bicycles and motorcycles. Vehicles with three or more wheels cannot lean as easily, as lean can cause at least one of the wheels to lose contact with the ground's surface. Wheel camber, center-point steering, and Ackerman steering also improve tracking during a turn. Instability during turning is more severe in light vehicles, vehicles with high centers of balance, and vehicles with shorter wheel bases. Stability during turning has been a particularly intractable problem with human-powered vehicles having more than two wheels, particularly those in which the human operator must remain upright during operation. Consequently there is a long-felt but unmet need in the art for ways to increase the stability of wheeled vehicles during turns that does not require a vehicle to be designed to be larger or heavier than is practical for lightly powered vehicles (such as human-powered vehicles).